1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system including a center system, terminal systems, and communication lines for the purpose of delivering and displaying contents, and particularly relates to a multi-media-automatic-delivery system in which data of moving-picture contents such as commercial advertisement is transmitted from a center system to a plurality of terminal systems via communication lines so as to display the contents on screens of the terminal systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surface-radio broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, and cable broadcasting are widely used to simultaneously send the identical information to general audience residing in a wide range of areas.
When information of a local nature such as local commercials or local whether information needs to be delivered to a particular local area, however, restricting the areas of delivery is rather a difficult task.
In recent years, cable television, which is directed to providing service to a local area, has made a certain progress in market. Installation, however, is required in advance with respect to dedicated adaptors, cables, and the like. Further, cable television also has a difficult technological challenge to overcome in order to deliver information to a selected area within the area of service.
An effort to overcome these problems in the related art has resulted in certain schemes. An example of such schemes is found in a Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 10-4379 (title of the invention: Advertisement Device, Date of Filing: Jun. 14, 1996). This scheme is hereinafter called a first related-art scheme.
FIG. 16 is an illustrative drawing showing a configuration of the first related-art scheme.
The first related-art scheme includes a center 102A having a host 10A connected to a PHS terminal. This scheme further includes transit antennas 101A used for communications between the center 102A and a public telephone network, and advertisement devices 30A establishing connection with the public telephone network via the transit antennas 101A.
In this hardware configuration, information is delivered from the host 10A to the advertisement devices 30A based on telephone numbers of the advertisement devices 30A, and intervals of the delivery may be, or may not be, constant. The delivered information is displayed or output as audio information in an order of receipt of data (i.e., in an order of received records of the delivered data). Once all the delivered information is displayed or output as audio, the same operation is repeated by going back to the beginning of the data until next information arrives from the host 10A.
The advertisement devices of the first related-art scheme are supposed to be able to provide a diligent advertisement service at a low cost by use of the PHS terminal 20A and the public telephone network.
These advertisement devices may be installed at convenient stores or super markets where POS registers are located. In such locations, advertisement of sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like can be provided in a sophisticated manner at a low cost. These features are disclosed in the above-identified document.
Another example of the schemes directed to overcoming the related-art shortcomings is use of recording media such as magneto-optical memory medium (e.g., MO disk) and magnetic disks (hard-drive disks). In this scheme, data is recorded in memory media at the host 10A, and, then, the memory media are delivered to client places where the advertisement devices 30A are located. The memory media are loaded to reading devices of the advertisement devices 30A so that the advertisement devices 30A can read the data delivered in the form of recording media. This scheme is hereinafter referred to as a second related-art scheme.
In the first related-art scheme, the load on the advertisement devices 30A is relatively light when a relatively small amount of data such as still-image information or character information is sent to the advertisement devices 30A. In such a case, a high performance is not an absolute requirement for the advertisement devices 30A.
In some cases, however, moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds-mega-bytes may need to be transmitted from the host 10A to the advertisement devices 30A when commercials on sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like is to be delivered. In such cases, a transmission time for the delivery of information becomes unduly lengthy, resulting in an exorbitant fee being required for a lengthy use of the communication network.
In detail, 500-Mbit data, which corresponds to one minute""s worth of MPEG2 video contents comprised of moving pictures and high-definition images, may be transmitted from the PHS terminal at a data rate of 32 kbs. In this case, even if the advertisement devices run almost at their full capacity, it will take at least 4 hours and 20 minutes to complete the data transmission.
In the first related-art scheme, when moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds mega-bytes is to be transmitted from the host 10A to the advertisement devices 30A for the purpose of delivering commercials on sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like, the load on the advertisement devices 30A is quite heavy, resulting in a need for high performance devices. Also, the communication network is required to have a high data-transfer capacity. Enhancing the speed of the advertisement devices 30A leads to a cost increase, and use of a high-speed communication network means an increase in a communication-line-usage fee. Because of this, it is difficult to adapt the first related-art scheme to multi-media applications which employs moving pictures and high-definition images.
In the second related-art scheme, data is recorded in memory media such as magneto-optical recording media or magnetic disks (hard-drive disks) at the site of the host 10A, and the memory media are delivered to client places where the advertisement devices 30A are located. The memory media are loaded to reading devices of the advertisement devices 30A so that the advertisement devices 30A can read the data delivered in the form of recording media. This configuration requires excessive time and labor, which are spent on recording and reading of the data as well as delivery of the memory media.
Moreover, the first and second related-art schemes do not provide the host 10A with a function of remote monitoring to monitor operation conditions of the advertisement devices 30A. This configuration makes it difficult for the transmission side to check whether the advertisement devices 30A are actually displaying the delivered data.
In the first and second related-art schemes, the host 10A is not provided with a function of remote control for controlling operations of the advertisement devices 30A. Because of this, it is difficult to check operations of the advertisement devices 30A individually with an aim of providing diligent delivery control, remote diagnosis, remote maintenance, etc.
Further, the first and second related-art schemes do not have a function to control a schedule regarding displaying of delivered data. This makes it difficult to customize the contents of the delivered data in accordance with such particulars as seasons, date, day, and locations where the advertisement devices 30A are installed.
Since the first and second related-art schemes do not provide a function to control a schedule regarding displaying of delivered data, it is difficult to give priority to delivered data of an urgent nature such as earthquake information, a railway accident, etc., over other delivered data.
The present invention is aimed at addressing the shortcomings described above.
First, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which delivers contents during a nighttime when a communication fee is relatively inexpensive for the purpose of avoiding a daytime delivery because such daytime delivery would lead to an increase in a communication-line-usage fee as it takes a lengthy time to deliver a large amount of contents such as moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds mega-bytes, which may need to be delivered from the center system to a plurality of terminal systems with an aim of delivering commercials on sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like.
In detail, 500-Mbit data, which corresponds to one minute""s worth of MPEG2 video contents comprised of moving pictures and high-definition images, may be transmitted from the PHS terminal at a data rate of 64 kbs by use of a public telephone network such as the ISDN. In this case, the light-load-time-remote-casting function of the present invention is supposed to complete the data delivery within only one hour or two.
Second, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which delivers contents during a nighttime when terminal systems are idling, the purpose being not to require the terminal systems to have a high-performance capacity and not to require the communication network to have a high-speed-data-transfer capacity so as to avoid a cost increase associated with enhancement of the terminal systems and to avoid an increase in a communication-line-usage fee caused by use of a high-speed-data-transfer network even when moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds mega-bytes is delivered from the center system to a plurality of terminal systems with an aim of delivering commercials on sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like.
Third, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which allows the transmission side to check whether delivered contents are actually displayed on terminal systems by using a remote monitoring function to monitor operations of the terminal systems.
Fourth, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which checks operations of individual terminal systems with an aim of providing diligent delivery control, remote diagnosis, and remote maintenance by use of a remote control function to control operations of the terminal systems.
Fifth, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which customizes the contents of the delivered data in accordance with such particulars as a season, a date, a day, and locations where the terminal systems are installed by using a function to control a schedule of displaying the contents.
Sixth, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which gives priority to delivered data of such an urgent nature as earthquake information, a railway accident, etc., over other delivered data by using a function to control a schedule of displaying the contents.
Seventh, there is a need for a scheme providing a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which eliminates a need for time and labor to be spent on recording of contents in memory media, delivery of the memory media, and reading of contents from the memory media, all of which would be required when the memory media is recorded at the center system, is delivered to the terminal systems, and is read by the terminal systems so as to deliver contents in the form of memory media.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a scheme which can satisfy the needs described above.
According to the present invention, a system for delivering contents includes a center system which delivers the contents, a plurality of terminal systems which receive the contents from the center system and displays the contents, and communication lines connecting the center system to the plurality of terminal systems, wherein the center system includes a delivery-schedule setting unit which sets a schedule of delivery, and a contents-delivery unit which delivers the contents to the terminal systems according to the schedule of delivery during a time period when a load on the terminal systems is lower than a predetermined level.
In this manner, the system described above is provided with a light-load-time-period-remote-casting function which delivers contents during time period such as a nighttime when terminal systems are idling, the purpose being not to require the terminal systems to have a high-performance capacity and not to require the communication network to have a high-speed-data-transfer capacity so as to avoid a cost increase associated with enhancement of the terminal systems and to avoid an increase in a communication-line-usage fee caused by use of a high-speed-data-transfer network even when moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds mega-bytes is delivered from the center system to a plurality of terminal systems with an aim of delivering commercials on sales goods, notices from a local community, traffic information, a local weather forecast, or the like.
Further, the light-load-time-period-remote-casting function can deliver the contents during a nighttime when a communication fee is relatively inexpensive for the purpose of avoiding a daytime delivery because such daytime delivery would lead to an increase in a communication-line-usage fee as it takes a lengthy time to deliver a large amount of contents such as moving-picture information or high-definition images having a large amount of multi-media data in the range of several hundreds mega-bytes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as described above is such that the center system further includes a terminal-system-control unit which registers and controls terminal-attribute information about attributes of the terminal systems, wherein the contents-delivery unit selects some of the plurality of terminal systems based on the terminal-attribute information, and delivers the contents to the selected terminal systems.
In the system described above, the center system can customize the contents delivered to particular terminal systems by selecting particular terminal systems for delivering particular contents.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as described above is such that the center system further includes a display-schedule setting unit which sets a schedule of display, wherein the contents-delivery unit delivers the contents and the schedule of display to the terminal systems, the schedule of display defining a schedule according to which the contents are displayed on the terminal systems. Further, each of the plurality of terminal systems includes a receiving unit which receives the contents and the schedule of display from the center system, a display unit, and a terminal-control unit which displays the contents on the display unit according to a schedule specified in the schedule of display.
The system described above is provided with a remote control function to control operations of the terminal systems. Based on this function, the displayed contents can be customized in accordance with a season, a date, a day, and locations where the terminal systems are installed. Further, such a remote control function can give priority to contents of an urgent nature such as earthquake information, railway-accident information, etc., over other routine contents.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as described above is such that each of the plurality of terminal systems includes a receiving unit which receives the contents from the center system, a first display unit which displays the contents on a screen thereof, a monitor camera which takes a picture of the screen of the first display unit, and a still-image-transmission unit which sends the picture to the center device. Further, the center system includes a second display unit which displays a plurality of pictures of the screen of the first display unit taken at intervals during a last predetermined time period.
The system described above allows the transmission side (i.e., the center system) to check whether delivered contents are actually displayed on terminal systems by using a remote monitoring function to monitor operations of the terminal systems.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.